<
https://reasonstobecheerful.world/pakistans-mangroves-coastal-conservation-climate-change/>
"Just two decades ago, the waterfront of Miani Hor, a swampy lagoon along the
Arabian Sea coastline in Pakistan’s western province of Balochistan, was no
more than a barren strip of land nearly devoid of vegetation. Today, it is
awash with lush thickets of velvety green mangroves, their signature aerial
roots poking through the lagoon’s brackish water.
The return of mangroves to Miani Hor is part of a vast ecological revival
taking hold across Pakistan — one with huge implications for climate change.
Hugging tropical and subtropical coastlines, mangroves are trees and shrubs
that tolerate salt, thrive in wetlands and rank among the most endangered
habitats on earth. More than a third of the earth’s mangrove area has been lost
since 1980, destroyed for coastal development, chopped down for timber, or
poisoned by industrial pollution. And although the rate of loss is slowing,
mangroves are still disappearing three to five times faster than land-based
forests — especially in Asia, where deforestation has massively increased over
the past 30 years.
But Pakistan stands out as a notable exception. After losing as much as
three-quarters of its mangrove forest over the past century, in the early 1990s
the South Asian nation began restoring its mangroves. What began as a series of
small, piecemeal efforts eventually grew into one of the most ambitious
reforestation campaigns in the world. Now, under a nationally coordinated
effort, Pakistan has restored vast swathes of degraded mangrove habitat and
become one of the few places to have experienced a net gain in mangrove area in
recent years."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
